Ponies of Fayra — Legend of Harmony

Springing out of bed at first light, Flare trotted over to the window and took a long deep breath of the ocean air.

“New day here I come!”

Putting on her roller skates, Flare made her way to her pizzeria and started her morning routine. She had mastered the art of combining her morning exercise with her morning prep work. Skating between workstations, she not only had breakfast ready to serve by the time ponies came in, but already had dough rising for lunch.

As the morning rush began to die down, Flare prepared a salad for Argon, figuring it was only a matter of moments until Zeph came in.

With the salad made, and the last pony gone, Flare began to wonder where Zeph was.

“Not like her to be—this late, unless…”

Having the unnerving feeling that Zeph could be once more trapped inside her archive room, Flare flipped over her diner’s open sign and skated the short distance to Zephs.

Knocking on the door and not receiving any answer, Flare grabbed her spare key out of her saddlebag, but when she went to use it found that the door was already unlocked.

Making her way in, she gasped at the sight before her eyes. Zeph’s archive room door was laying in pieces on the floor.

“Z-Zeph, are you alright!?”

Rushing over to the archive room, heart pounding, Flare began digging through the mess.

“Zeph, if you’re trapped under any of this, make some noise!”

Not hearing anything, Flare began to panic as thoughts of Argon and Zeph lying unconscious under the pile somewhere flashed through her mind.

As Flare frantically dug through the mess, she suddenly heard a voice behind her, which had caught her so off guard that she tossed the box she was holding over her head. Seeing its content start to rain down, Flare ducked her head for a moment then looked behind her to find Zain.

“Normally it’s my sister making the mess and you cleaning it up.”

“Zain! I think Zeph and Argon could be trapped and unconscious in here somewhere.”

Zain looked at her suspiciously for a moment, then looked at the room filled with collapsed junk.

“I suppose it does look possible, but I feel like that’s pretty unlikely.”

“She didn’t show up for breakfast today, and when I came to check on her, this is what I found. What else could it be?”

“A lot of things, but if you really think so, I’ll help you look.”

Working together, the pair was able to check the enormous pile fairly quickly and came up empty hoofed. Feeling worn out and like it was getting close to the lunch rush flare sighed in a mixture of relief and frustration.

“At least she wasn’t trapped… Maybe she was just in a hurry to follow a lead or something this morning. Seems weird, though she didn’t talk about anything work related last night. You going to come to the Pizzeria for lunch?”

Flare stared at Zain wishfully.

“S-sure, a glow berry pizza sounds like a good lunch.”

Flare stuck out her tongue at the thought of the flavorless pizza, but smiled at the thought of getting a chance to make Zain lunch. As the pair made their way back to the Pizzeria, Flares’ mind was too busy thinking of ways to try and spice up a glow berry pizza to worry about Zeph and Argon. However, once her new creation, along with the rest of the lunch pizzas, were done and served, Flares’ mind went back to Zeph as she sat down next to Zain and took a slice of his pizza.

“You have any clues where Zeph could be?” Flare said, as she took a tiny nibble of her latest creation, which, to her surprise, actually tasted a little like… something… she wasn’t sure what that something was, but it was actually something.

“No, uhm, what’s with the weird face?”

“This actually tastes like something!?”

“Yeah, after you eat glow berries for a while, they seem to get an oddly addictive, sparkly flavor.”

“Guess that explains why Argon liked them so much. I got the feeling he’s eaten quite a lot of them. I wonder if any pony else actually eats these things?”

“Nope, you’re the only pony who wants them for food, outside of myself, of course.” Came a small voice from the entryway. Looking over, Flare saw the small stature of her long-time friend and now crystal glow berry supplier Cozy Candles. A tiny pink feathered and yellow maned pegasus who could easily be mistaken for a child by anyone who hadn’t known her for long.

“Hey Cozy, you wouldn’t happen to know where Zeph is, would you?” asked Flare, hopeful, as Cozy was one of very few ponies who were up most of the night on account of her prefering not to spend much time out in the sun.

“I saw her run by when I was out for my walk this morning. Well, my morning. It looked like she was chasing after a lavender blur that could have been the bunny you were telling me about.”

“That’s odd. As well as they get along, I wouldn’t have guessed Argon would try to make a run for it at night.”

“If you want to talk about odd, not too long after Zeph zipped by, I saw a trio of ponies looking all over the place for something. When I asked them if they needed any help, they just told me little fillies shouldn’t be up so late and told me to go home. I ignored them, of course, and instead followed them for a while. They kept talking about, ‘needing to find her before it’s too late.’ And ‘the boss isn’t going to be happy if they come back empty hoofed.’”

“That’s really strange… do you think they were talking about Zeph?”

“Zeph is a ‘her,’ I guess, but if they were, they were going in the wrong direction. They were slowly moving towards the docks near here, whereas I saw Zeph going towards west ridge.”

“West ridge…” muttered Zain. “I remember reviewing food once at a place in west ridge that claimed their food was based on ancient pony fair as west ridge was the first inhabited area on the Lost Isles.”

“What’s your point?” Asked Flare.

“Maybe she was taking Argon there to try and get him food that reminds him of home?”

“No pony is up cooking that time of day,” Cozy said with a snorty laugh. “She was out closer to dinner than breakfast, and no one makes dinner that late either.”

“Speaking of, you want your usual?” asked Flare as she got up.

“Actually, I was hoping for glow berry pizza.” Cozy said with an innocent wishful smile.

“Should be enough of this one to split one more way.”

Cozy plopped down next to Flare and started eating after thanking her for the food.

After a couple of moments of silent eating, Zain cleared his throat. “So, now that we know Zeph’s fine, I assume we’re just going to wait until she comes home tonight and ask her what happened?”

“What gave you that idea?” barked Flare while she stared unamused at Zain. “She went running after a bunny in the middle of the night and never came back. As soon as we’re done eating, we’re going to west ridge.” Flare finished with a hard hoof slam on the table.